The online platform X has sparked major backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
